Lab Members
Meet The Team
Dr. Vaijayanti Tamhane
Principal Investigator
Assistant Professor
Department of Biotechnology
Dr. Vaijayanti Tamhane started the Plant and molecular biology lab 10+ years ago in IBB which is now jointly merged with the Department of Biotechnology. She has been working in multiple areas of Biotechnology. Some of them are plant insect interaction, plant defenses, ecology and diversity, etc. She holds a Masters in Botany with specialization in plant biotechnology and her PhD is in Biotechnology in NCL. Whereas later she joined Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology (MPI for CE), Jena in Germany. She has been recently awarded SERB SIRE fellowship where she worked at Prof. Asaph Aharoni's Lab, Department of Plant and Environmental Science, Weizmann Institute of Sciences, Israel for 6 months.
PhD Scholars
Javed Mulla
Senior Research Fellow from ICMR 2022-2025 Project Assistant on SERB CRG project to Dr. Tamhane Pursuing Ph.D in the area of plant defense peptides and insect interactions.
Supriya Acharya
Principal Investigator
WOS -A fellowship from Department of Science and Technology (DST) -
Women Scientist Scheme A (2022-2025)
Pursuing Ph.D in Molecular cloning and functional characterization of
Cytochrome P450 enzymes of a rare medicinal tree- Oroxylum indicum.
Srushti Bhagwat
Junior Research Fellow, Lady Tata Memorial Trust 2023-2028
Project Trainee on SERB CRG project to Dr. Tamhane for 2 months
Pursuing Ph.D. in the area of Antifungal activity of defensins against
plant and human fungal pathogens.
Vaibhavi Sadanshiv
PhD Research Scholar
One year Project Assistant on RUSA CBS TH 1.5 Project.
Pursuing Ph.D in the area of Plant-insect interactions in wild and
domestic solanum species with focus on the role of amino acid metabolizing enzymes.
Third Year Students
Batch 2023-2024
Arya Todankar
Rucha Khairnar
Anoushka Menzies
Srushti Chavhan
Vrushali Gaikwad
Batch 2021-2023
Jagruti Pawar
Yugadya Gaur
Aditi Manjare
Abhilasha Sonawane
Janhvee Palsodkar
Aditya Maslekar
Sarvesh Shevade
Advait Agashe
Chaitali Chavan
MSc Students
Vedangi Hayatnagarkar
I am a 5th year student of the Institute of Bioinformatics and biotechnology (IBB). I performed my Third year and fifth year projects under the guidance of Dr. Vaijayanti Tamhane. I am passionately curious, like to understand any concept deeply, and always try to link my imagination to my understanding, that’s how I love science.
Rituja Shintre
I have been interested in science, especially biology. I am particularly interested in plant tissue culture and also understanding how insects interact with the plants and the surrounding environment. Besides academics, I love baking and drawing.
Onkar Ghuge
I am currently a dissertation student. Currently trying to understand the intricacies of the dynamic nature of Helicoverpa armigera. I love playing sports and watching movies.
Parag Palod
I joined the lab for my masters dissertation project in January 2022. Inspired after studying Dr. Vaijayanti mam's work, I thought this could be the best place to do my project. I approached her and got selected for working on Defensins under her guidance. I already had keen interest in plant sciences and she gave me this golden opportunity which helped me gain a better research experience. Plant sciences, molecular biology and Recombinant DNA technology are my subjects of Interest.
Past Lab Members
PhD Scholars